Coworkers turn out to be sisters, separated for 40 years

SARASOTA (FOX 13) - When Holly O'Brien and Meagan Hughes started working together as nursing assistants earlier this year, something clicked between the two of them.

"Not to be biased, but I saw me in her and that's why we clicked so well," said Hughes.

In fact, they clicked so well that O'Brien began thinking of 40 years ago in South Korea. She was just 5 years old when her father died and she was sent to an orphanage. She was adopted by an American couple.

She never forgot that she had a little sister, two years younger, who was taken by her step-mom. She says she's prayed to find her all of her life.

AGAINST ALL ODDS

O'Brien knew there was something about Hughes that seemed familiar.

"There was something in her face, her smile, that looked like my father," she continued.

When they started comparing their passports, they discovered that Hughes ended up at the same orphanage, and that they had the same Korean last name -- Shin.

O'Brien didn't want to get her hopes up. Maybe they were distant cousins. To think that sisters separated four decades earlier could end up in the same place half a world away was against all odds.

"Who would have thought that we would be working at the same hospital, the same floor, the same shift?" said Hughes.

FINDING OUT FOR SURE

There was only one way to find out for sure.

"We did DNA to find the answer and we got the answer," O'Brien smiled.

The test revealed they are sisters.

At Doctor's Hospital, where they both work, the two told me they feel like sisters and sometimes finish one another's sentences.

Hughes -- who never even knew she had a sister -- has two daughters of her own and O'Brien says she looks forward to being their long, lost aunt.

Both encouraged others who are adopted and wish to find their siblings or parents not to give up.